In its recent decision in State of Utah v. Su, the Fifth Circuit remanded a challenge to the Department of Labor’s (DOL) environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rule for investing in defined contribution retirement plans...more
A New Jersey federal district court recently granted summary judgment in defendants’ favor in an ERISA excessive fee case accusing Evonik’s 401(k) plan fiduciaries of keeping imprudent investments in the plan and of allowing...more
The Fourth Circuit affirmed Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting’s trial victory in a 250,000-member class action suit alleging that Aon breached ERISA’s fiduciary duties.
Aon was initially the Lowe’s 401(k) plan’s investment...more
The Third Circuit refused to enforce a mandatory arbitration clause with a class action waiver in an ESOP, finding that the class action waiver deprived participants of statutory rights. The ESOP plan added the clause at...more
Is a new wave of ERISA fiduciary litigation targeting group health plan sponsors on the horizon? There have already been a few examples of health plan fee cases, such as claims challenging the billing practice between...more
In this issue of the Class Action Trends Report, Jackson Lewis attorneys look back at class action developments in 2021, including COVID-19 vaccine mandate litigation, significant procedural decisions, wage and hour suits,...more
2/16/2022
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Class Action ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Data Breach ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Mandates ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Off-Duty Employees ,
Out-of-State Employees ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Popular ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
SCOTUS ,
Vaccinations ,
Wage and Hour ,
Website Accessibility ,
Workers' Compensation Claim
In what is known as a “snap” removal, a non-resident defendant may be able to remove a state court case to federal court based on diversity jurisdiction, despite resident defendant(s) being named in the suit. To effect a snap...more
The District Court for the Southern District of Iowa recently dismissed an ERISA putative class action lawsuit challenging 401(k) performance and fees after plan participants failed to identify appropriate benchmarks in their...more
The Eastern District of Missouri recently examined whether administrative exhaustion is a prerequisite to an ERISA suit alleging a wrongful denial of employee benefits, where the benefit plan’s language did not include an...more
The District Court of Minnesota declined to certify a class of pensioners seeking to challenge their plan’s early retirement calculations. ERISA requires early retirement benefits to be actuarially equivalent to what...more
The Third Circuit will review a Pennsylvania district court’s decision to certify a 60,000+ person class in an ERISA fiduciary breach lawsuit claiming mismanagement of a defined contribution plan’s investments and...more
Recently, in Davis v. Salesforce.com, a California district court dismissed for the second time claims alleging that the defendant 401(k) plan fiduciaries breached their ERISA fiduciary duties by retaining overpriced and...more
The Northern District of California dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit alleging a 401(k) plan’s sponsor and fiduciaries included unreasonably expensive funds in the plan’s investment lineup. The court previously dismissed...more
Employers should develop and implement the most compliant and risk adverse benefits plans, but the plaintiff’s bar will still search for loopholes. Investment fees and loss, COBRA litigation and healthcare claims are only a...more
The Ninth Circuit recently affirmed the dismissal of an ERISA employer-stock drop putative class action, holding that the plaintiff’s failure to identify specific, viable alternative actions that plan fiduciaries should have...more
Aligning itself with other circuit courts that have ruled on the issue, the Ninth Circuit recently held that ERISA does not bar forum selection clauses in benefit plans. The background of the case and the Ninth Circuit’s...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently concluded that investment advisor Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb must face a proposed class action under ERISA Section 502(a)(2) for breach of fiduciary duty relating to its...more
3/8/2021
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Breach of Duty ,
Class Action ,
Dissenting Opinions ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Equitable Estoppel ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investment Adviser ,
Mismanagement ,
Motion to Compel ,
Performance Standards ,
Profit Sharing ,
Secretary of Labor
In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that federal courts can review decisions by the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board denying claimants’ requests to reopen prior benefits denials. Salinas v. U.S. R.R. Ret. Bd.,...more
2/8/2021
/ Denial of Benefits ,
Disability ,
Disability Benefits ,
Judicial Review ,
Jurisdiction ,
Railroad Retirement Act ,
Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) ,
Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (RUIA) ,
Railroads ,
Salinas v United States Railroad Retirement Board ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 355
A class action alleging that BlackRock entities favored their own proprietary funds when selecting investment options for BlackRock’s 401(k) Plan is headed for trial after Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. denied both parties’...more
An Arkansas law regulating pharmacy benefit managers’ (PBMs) generic drug reimbursement rates, and affecting the cost of prescription drugs provided under ERISA-governed benefit plans and the administration of those plans, is...more
12/14/2020
/ Drug Pricing ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Health Insurance ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmacies ,
Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) ,
Preemption ,
Prescription Drug Coverage ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Rutledge v Pharmaceutical Care Management Association ,
SCOTUS
This term, the U.S. Supreme Court returns to a challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In the consolidated cases of California v. Texas (No. 19-840) and Texas v. California (No. 19-1019), the Court will consider whether a...more
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear the second of several ERISA disputes this term, the first issue we discussed as the term began, October 5, 2020. Monday, November 2, 2020, the Justices will consider whether the Railroad...more
On October 6, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear argument on ERISA’s preemptive effect on a state law regulating pharmacy benefit managers’ (PBMs) generic drug reimbursement rates in Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care...more
Imagine something as simple as a COBRA notice that complies with law, but is not identical to the Department of Labor’s (DOL) model notice, leading to six- or seven-figure class action litigation settlements?
Companies in...more